Overview
Yesterday afternoon CSPEN shared with the higher education community the U.S. Department of Education’s email announcing the posting of the agenda, issue papers and additional resources in advance of next week’s third and final Federal Negotiated Rulemaking session.

This morning we wanted to share with you a very brief summary of status of some of the most controversial proposals based upon the Department’s position heading into the final round of negotiations. 

This is by no means an exhaustive list of the proposed revisions that are included in the Issue Papers, or even a list of all of the changes that could be objectionable to one or more of the non-Federal negotiators.  But it is an attempt to highlight just some of the very important policy modifications, additions, and deletions being considered that will significantly impact some or all of the higher education community depending upon the outcome.

CSPEN will provide a much more robust summary of each Issue Paper, more details of the proposals contained within each Issue Paper, and an overview of the positioning of various groups leading into the final negotiating session on tomorrow’s CSPEN Federal Legislative & Regulatory Update webinar.

Highlighted Concerns
Issue Paper 1 – Cash Management

  • Prohibiting the inclusion of charges for books, supplies and other educationally related goods and services as part of Title IV funds credited on a student’s ledger account.
  • Requiring the institution to individually discloses the cost of such books, supplies, and other educationally related goods and services to the student prior to any authorization being signed by the student or parent and also requiring written authorization each payment period.
  • Requiring the return or reallocation of the cash value of meal plans that go unused at the end of each payment period withing 14 days.
  • Making significant changes to the relationships between institutions and third-party banks and other lending entities as part of Tier One and Tier Two Arrangements.

Issue Paper 2 – State Authorization

  • Potentially undermining the benefits of State Reciprocity Agreements for distance education programs by enabling the State to enforce its own consumer protection, mandating new student complaint processes, and requiring that the governing body of State Reciprocity Agreements must consist solely of representatives from State regulatory and licensing bodies, enforcement agencies, and attorneys general offices.
  • Mandating additional conditions of participation for institutions, for example an institution must obtain within one year direct authorization from any participating State where it enrolls more that 500 students.
  • Requiring each state to have a process for communicating information about a student’s compliant and requiring communication of a student complaint with the State entity responsible for administering State Reciprocity Agreements.

Issue Paper 3 – Distance Education

  • Eliminating “asynchronous” delivery of distance educational offerings from institutions required to provide the education under the definition of “clock hour” of instruction.

Issue Paper 4 – R2T4

  • Significantly revising the determination of refund calculations of programs offered in modules.
  • Revising the determination of when a student has withdrawn from an institution.

Issue Paper 5 – Accreditation

  • Comprehensive restructuring of both the process of recognition for accrediting agencies and agency’s oversight roles and responsibilities with respect to the institutions of higher education.

Session 3 Documents
Session 3 Agenda
The proposed Agenda
Session 3 Issue Paper Cash Management
Session 3 Issue Paper State Authorization
Session 3 Issue Paper Distance Education
Session 3 Issue Paper R2T4
Session 3 Accreditation Regulatory Text
Session 3 Issue Paper TRIO

What’s Next
To learn more about these issues and others contained in the Issue Papers join us Thursday for CSPEN’s Federal Legislative & Regulatory Update below.
And, if you are interested in viewing all or part of next week’s Session 3 negotiations, you can register for the livestream of the final meeting of the Program Integrity and Institutional Quality Committee here.

CSPEN Webinar Registration
Please register for CSPEN Legislative & Regulatory Update on Feb 29, 2024 2:00 PM EST at:
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7033244267891009112
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.